


Bake it 'Til You Make it

by treaddelicately



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Baking, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Post-Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), mentions of Cassie Lang - Freeform, without the Snap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:22:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28490850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treaddelicately/pseuds/treaddelicately
Summary: Cassie asked Hope to bake for the holidays, so that's exactly what she's doing. If she's doing itwell... now, that's a matter of opinion.
Relationships: Scott Lang/Hope Van Dyne
Comments: 12
Kudos: 48





	Bake it 'Til You Make it

**Author's Note:**

  * For [earnmysong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/earnmysong/gifts).



> For the lovely earnmysong, who requested **holiday baking** for Langdyne, which I was only too happy to oblige! Thank you so much for giving me an excuse to write this ship that is never shown enough love! This prompt was incredible and I had so much fun writing it.

There were plenty of reasons no one had ever asked Hope to bake.

She and Hank had never done the Christmas traditions thing throughout her childhood, and the majority of her adult life had been spent focusing on far more important things than learning the chemistry necessary for baked goods. She had a wide array of other skills, after all. Why would she need baking when she could disarm men three times her size and command an insect army?

Except now she had a kid in her in her life. A kid who _liked_ all the holiday traditions, who wanted to involve her, and Hope couldn’t say no to Cassie Lang’s big brown eyes. Especially not when she’d hugged her legs and asked her if they could pretty please decorate cookies when she came to visit for Christmas.

Which was how Hope found herself staring at a cooling tray of scorched, cracked sugar cookies with absolutely no time to salvage them. She crossed her arms and frowned at the sheet pan, drumming her fingers and debating if she had enough vanilla left to start over. Maybe she just needed to turn the oven down…

The creak of the front door sent her scrambling, and she had just barely managed to throw a dish towel on top of the cookies before Scott poked his head into the kitchen.

“Hey, there you are. How’s it going in here?”

“Great,” she breathed, pasting on a smile. “The, uh, cookies just need to cool off. I thought you were gonna be out for a little while?”

“Yeah, store wasn’t as busy as I thought.” Scott dropped a few bags of groceries on the counter with his back to her, giving her a moment to rearrange her poker face appropriately. If she played her cards right, he’d let her unpack the groceries and get out of the kitchen so she could go back to figuring out what the hell to do with the cookies. 

“That’s good,” she said, staving off despair when he started putting things away. “Scott, I can do that.”

He snorted, opening the cupboard to stow a gigantic box of fruit snacks. “Not falling for that one. The last time I left groceries on the counter, I got yelled at.”

God, he had to choose _that exact minute_ to be helpful?

“I’m already in here, I really don’t mind.” Hope moved over to squeeze his shoulder, but he’d already stopped. And was sniffing the air.

“Do you smell something burnt?”

Her trusty poker face held steady. “I think it’s just the bottom of the oven. You know, cause you never clean it out.”

“Ha ha ha, very funny,” Scott deadpanned. He grabbed her by the waist and Hope leaned in to meet him, plenty grateful for the kiss but even happier for a chance to distract him. She tried to drag it out but he released her after a moment or two to continue arguing, naturally. “I have been doing much better, thank you. In fact, just to prove it, I’ll clean up _right now_.”

As if in slow motion, Hope watched his arm stretch out towards the counter. His fingers nearly grazed the towel covering the cookies but she was faster, her hands clutching his shirt to yank him in for another kiss.

She swallowed his noise of surprise and set about using her mouth to get her way. Scott was easy like that, and pretty soon he had her backed into the counter with his hands on her hips, making some throaty noises that would have sent her mind reeling elsewhere any other time.

But she still had to get him out of the damn kitchen, and so she released him with one last nip to his mouth.

“Not that I don’t appreciate the gesture, but I can handle things in here. I’m a big girl, Scott.”

Scott blinked a few times as though bringing himself back to their previous conversation. She watched the confusion in his eyes give way to realization, laughter bubbling out of her when he took a step back with a grumble.

“A guy tries to be chivalrous and look what he gets. Not an ounce of gratitude.”

Hope rolled her eyes and smacked him on the arm. “Keep it up and I’ll show you some gratitude.”

All of his muttering went in one ear and directly out the other as he turned to go, her brain too focused on celebrating the victory of Operation Get Scott Out. It could have been that or maybe that he was faster than she gave him credit for, but either way she didn’t expect him to turn back around.

“On second thought, though, I do want one of these.”

She didn’t even have a chance. The “wait!” barely left her lips before he pulled off the dish towel and revealed her failure.

Scott’s eyes, wide and horrified, flickered between her and the cookie sheet. “Hope, what did you _do_?”

Alright, time for plan B. Hope straightened up and let her face go blank. “I made cookies.”

“They’re supposed to be sugar cookies.”

“They are!”

Scott picked one up and held it up to the light, examining with a grimace. “Sweetheart, they look more like hockey pucks.”

She wanted to argue, but there was really no response after he dropped it back to the tray and it broke into two with a _snap_.

“Okay, look,” Hope sighed, the words coming out way less defensive than she’d intended. “I don’t really know how to do the whole… baking… thing.”

Enough of a pause ensued that she crossed her arms and averted her eyes, unwilling to look at him for too long. Their entire relationship so far had been based on Hope being the more competent one, teaching Scott as they went along, and being… well, not great at something, didn’t sit right. It chafed under her skin and made her want to scratch to throw it off.

“Hope,” Scott said softly, but the embarrassment was too much. She kept her eyes on the ceiling until he stood in front of her and smoothed his hands over her hair, gently cupping her face until she met his gaze. “Why didn’t you say something?”

Hope bit her lip. “But Cassie was so excited. I didn’t want to disappoint her.”

Maternal instincts weren’t something that she came by naturally, and of course she would never be Cassie’s mom. She had one of those, a great one that liked Hope and texted her memes and showed her plenty of old embarrassing photos of Scott. Hope liked Maggie, too, but she didn’t want to _be_ her. 

She just wanted a place in Cassie’s life, the way she’d found one in Scott’s. They were a package deal, after all. She had known that from the very beginning, and wouldn’t change it for anything. Even if it meant making an ass of herself trying to bake cookies for an eleven year old.

Scott stroked his thumbs over her cheeks and brushed a kiss to her forehead.

“Cassie likes you, Hope. You don’t have to be Mary Berry to impress her.”

Hope frowned. “I don’t even know who that is.”

“We have to work on your Bake Off education.” If it were possible, he looked even more horrified than he had about the cookies. “But first, let me show you the Lang family secret to mind-melting, amazing, over-the-top fantastic cookies.”

He let go of her to rummage through the bags he’d brought home. Hope leaned on the counter, managing a small smile now that the vise in her chest had loosened up some.

“You have a family secret?” 

The secret, as it turned out, was a container of pre-made sugar cookies he had clutched in one hand and an icing kit in the other.

“Voila!” He wiggled his eyebrows, setting the items on the counter behind her. “Old family recipe. Can’t beat it.”

“Scott.” Hope tried to protest, but his over-the-top smile and obvious pride in himself won her over. “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. Cassie’s gonna have fun decorating with you, okay? I promise.” Scott dropped a kiss to the top of her head, brightening her smile substantially. “But we should probably get rid of those abominations before she gets here.”

She couldn’t really argue with that, either. “Good plan.”

“I do have those from time to time.” Scott winked, grabbing the cookie sheet to dump the ruined crumbs into the garbage. 

“Don’t get too cocky,” she reminded him. “You’re not _that_ good.”

“I’m not the one who messed up sugar cookies,” he sang, using the aluminum tray as a shield to block the pot holder she threw at him.

He was _so_ lucky he was cute. Hope sighed and picked up the plastic container he’d brought her, chewing her lower lip with indecision before popping them open. Scott was right, after all. She didn’t have to make something homemade for the gesture to be heartfelt. The point was that she got to spend time with Cassie and that they would have fun doing it.

Next time, she’d just leave all the baking to the professionals.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are loved and appreciated very, very much. 💜


End file.
